Have You Totally Lost Your Gourd?

THINK ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED. JONAH WAS GOD’S MAN WITH A MISSION. HE WAS TO GO TO NINEVEH BUT INSTEAD WENT IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. HE DIDN’T WANT THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH TO BE SAVED FROM THE WRATH OF GOD, BUT GOD, IN HIS MERCY, DID.

JONAH SITS ON HILL OVERLOOKING NINEVEH, REGRETTING HE HAD OBEYED GOD. GOD PROVIDED A GOURD VINE TO GIVE SHADE. THEN GOD SENT A WORM TO DESTROY THE GOURD. THEN HE SENT A HOT, DRY, DUSTY WIND.

JONAH MISSED THE GOURD SO MUCH HE WANTED GOD TO TAKE HIS LIFE. GOD SAID: “JONAH, WHY DO YOU GRIEVE OVER THE GOURD? YOU DIDN’T CREATE IT, YOU ONLY ENJOYED ITS SHADE. YOU CARE MORE ABOUT THE GOURD THAN THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH.”

WHAT IS SO AMAZING TO ME IS GOD’S PATIENCE AND GENTLENESS WITH JONAH. THIS IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE FACT THAT GOD WILL NEVER INTERFERE WITH OUR FREE WILL. GOD WILL NEVER FORCE US TO DO ANYTHING AND THAT INCLUDES ACCEPTIING OUR OWN SALVATION.

HE’S MOVED HEAVEN AND EARTH TO COME KNOCKING AT OUR HEART’S DOOR BUT HE’LL NEVER FORCE HIS WAY IN. HE’LL NEVER COME IN UNINIVITED. HE WILL NEVER FORCE US TO STAY IN FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM. BUT IT’S BEST THAT WE DO.

IX. WE CAN LEARN FROM JONAH.

1. We can learn some things from this but we don’t have to go through the experience of being swallowed by a whale.

2. But we’re going to have to lose the comfort of some of our gourds.

3. Let me explain:

a. We all have one or more gourds in our lives.

b. What is a Gourd?

c. It’s anything we value more highly than our relationship with the Lord.

d. That doesn’t necessarily mean we do it on purpose. It’s something that just sneaks up on us if we’re not careful.

3. A gourd in our lives could be a lot of things:

a. It could be Family, friends or our possessions, the material things we have accumulated: cars, boats, home or furniture.

b. Money, talents or gifts we may have. It could be concern about our appearance - how others see us. It could be a career or a job and the struggle to improve a lifestyle.

c. The gourd could be our habits, our comforts and pleasures in life.

d. It could be relationships with church members, taking priority over our relationship with the Lord.

X. Go back and look at:

verse 4, chapter 4, Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

1. Another translation puts it this way, “Is doing good and saving the Ninevites making you unhappy?”

a. Jonah was mad. His reputation was on the line. He had prophesied the demise of Nineveh and God, in His Grace, forgave and spared them. So now Jonah is mad and pouting.

b. The problem was: Jonah was more concerned about his reputation than God’s.

XI. Verses 5 & 6, So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

1. Jonah was all alone and out of fellowship with God. He wasn’t’ about to go to Nineveh and make friends. But he found a friend in the gourd. It provided comfort to Jonah.